From the moment a U.S. Capitol Police officer shot into a crowd trying to get on the floor of the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2021, killing Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, Judicial Watch has been on the case.
Over nearly four years, the conservative Washington legal watchdog has forced the government to cough up legal documents and videos in its effort to determine if the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was an “insurrection,” as Vice President Kamala Harris claims, or a set-up job to put former President Donald Trump behind bars.
While its investigation is continuing with a $30 million wrongful death suit against the government in the killing of Babbitt, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is ready to address what he dubs the “elephant” in the 2024 election.
“Jan. 6 is a cudgel being used to jail Trump,” he told Secrets. “I don’t know how else we can put it. If you need an understanding of what Jan. 6 is about, it’s they’re trying to put Trump in jail.”
‘She’s dead, she’s dead’: Jan. 6 video has new angle on Ashli Babbitt shooting @J6TrueTimeline https://t.co/N34995qbzH pic.twitter.com/c7WMbcEPx4
— Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) January 2, 2024
Backed by a mountain of documents he mostly had to sue for, all made public, Fitton said the riot doesn’t fit the pattern of a planned insurrection, a point he made in his newly released book about his group’s watchdog efforts, Rights and Freedoms in Peril.
Key insurrection issues, he said, have never been answered. For example, why did the “seditionists” leave the Capitol on their own? Was there an ultimate plan to install Trump as president, or was it “an ugly, embarrassing debacle?” The police knew the crowds would be big and mad, so why didn’t they mass at the Capitol? And why did some police remove barricades and invite protesters in?
“Was the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 a good thing? Absolutely not. There was violence and lawlessness. Was the Capitol riot a revolution or seditious conspiracy to topple the legitimate government? Absolutely not,” he wrote in his book.
Fitton believes that Democrats, led by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), rejected National Guard troops and police in the hopes leftist anarchists such as antifa would clash with pro-Trump supporters and embarrass the president or worse.
“Riots happen because of failures by the police and their leadership,” Fitton said in an interview. “It’s clear, based on the record, that the Left did not want security at the Capitol because they were hoping their friends in the antifa movement would engage in violence against Trump supporters, and they thought having a big military presence, National Guard presence, or secure police presence, would stop that from happening.”
Then, there is the Babbitt killing and how that was handled. Fitton remains concerned that the case was not fully investigated and that the officer involved, Michael Byrd, was promoted and made into a hero.
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In his book, Fitton wrote: “In a just system, Ashli Babbitt would be mourned as a victim of true police malfeasance, and Michael Byrd would have faced a significant criminal investigation. But America has entered a netherworld of justice and reason, where the Left can turn scoundrels into heroes and innocent murdered women into traitors.”
“Let’s not pretend that was acceptable,” he told Secrets.
